It is said that the king’s pursuers were thrown off the right track of discovery by an owl that flew out of the oak where he was concealed, leading the captain to say, “The owl loveth not company, and where he is no one else can be.” It is also related that when Charles complained of the slowness of the horse on which he fled in disguise, one of the Penderells remarked that the animal never before had “the weight of three kingdoms on his back.” These stories may not be quite true, but one is reminded of them by the figures on the chimney-piece.
The Class next went to Leamington, a most convenient point from which to make short excursions to Stratford-on-Avon, Warwick Castle, and Kenilworth Castle. Leamington, although itself not historically interesting, is provided with excellent hotels, being an English watering-place.
KING CHARLES’S HIDING PLACE.
The first excursion of the party from Leamington was to Stratford-on-Avon, to the house where Shakspeare was born, and the church in which he was buried.
SHAKSPEARE.
The birthplace of Shakspeare is an antique-looking stone house two stones high, with picturesque gables fronting the street. In the room where he first saw the light of the world he was to enrich with his thought there is a cast of his face taken after his death, and a portrait painted in the prime of his life. The latter showed a truly noble brow; it was such a face as fancy itself might paint, so royally did it seem endowed with genius. In this room Sir Walter Scott had [!-- original location of 'Shakspeare' --] [!-- blank page --] inscribed his name on a pane of glass, and Wordsworth once wrote a stanza which is still preserved under glass. It began with these lines:—